San Francisco -- Granular, a San Francisco-based developer of farm management software and analytics tools, said on Wednesday it has raised $18.7 million in its second round of funding, led by Tao Capital Partners. New investors Emory Investment Management, Fall Line Capital and H. Barton Asset also joined previous backers Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures in the round. The company, which now has raised $25.2 million since its inception, said it will use the proceeds primarily to expand its team of software and data science professionals in San Francisco, as well as farming industry professionals deployed near customers for increased local support nationwide. Plans also call for extending the product into the specialty crop and livestock segments. Granular's farm management software brings together financial, operational and agronomic information in real-time to give growers an accurate view of their operation throughout the entire season.http://granular.ag http://www.granular.ag/granular-announces-18-7m-series-b-financing-funding-to-accelerate-sales-to-farming-500/ _____________________________________________

o S.F.-Based MedGenome Raises $20 Million in Second Round

San Francisco -- MedGenome, a San Francisco-based provider of genomic diagnostics and research services, said on Wednesday it has landed $20 million in its second round of funding from Sequoia Capital. The company, which has major operations in India, said it will use the proceeds to further build its bioinformatics infrastructure, bolster its sequencing facilities and expand its research and scientific teams. MedGenome's genomics platform currently is being used for numerous genomic research projects in areas such as cancer and immunotherapies, metabolic diseases, Parkinson's disease, kidney, liver, and ophthalmological diseases, diabetes, deafness and aging. Abhay Pandey of Sequoia Capital will join the company's board of directors.http://www.medgenome.com/ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medgenome-announces-20-million-investment-from-sequoia-capital-to-discover-the-worlds-most-valuable-genomic-variants-300116634.html _____________________________________________

o San Francisco-Based Limelight Health Raises $3 Million in First Round

San Francisco -- Limelight Health, a San Francisco-based developer of mobile technology for the health insurance industry, said it has landed $3 million in its first round of funding, co-led by MassMutual Ventures and AXA Strategic Ventures. Previous backer LaunchPad Digital Health also took part in the round, which the company will use to grow its sales and engineering teams, bolster its cloud-based technology platform and expand distribution nationally. Limelight is the developer of QuotePad, a mobile quoting and modeling platform that enables health insurance professionals to quickly quote and compare employee health insurance benefits information. "With $375 billion wasted each year on billing and health insurance paperwork, there is tremendous opportunity for the right technology solution to reduce unnecessary administrative tasks and inefficiencies in workflow," said co-founder and CEO Jason Andrew.https://www.limelighthealth.com https://www.limelighthealth.com/limelight-health-raises-3-million-in-series-a-funding-financing-led-by-massmutual-ventures-and-axa-strategic-ventures/ _____________________________________________

o WSJ: FCC Set to Approve AT&T's $49 Billion Acquisition of DirecTV

Washington, DC -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to approve telecom giant AT&T's $49 billion acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Under the deal, first announced in May 2014, AT&T would pay $95 a share in a combination of cash and stock. The acquisition would make the combined company the nation's largest pay TV provider. Responding to the report, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler confirmed that an order recommending the approval of the deal has been circulated to the FCC's commissioners. "The proposed order outlines a number of conditions that will directly benefit consumers by bringing more competition to the broadband marketplace," Wheeler said in a statement. "If the conditions are approved by my colleagues, 12.5 million customer locations will have access to a competitive high-speed fiber connection. This additional build-out is about 10 times the size of AT&T's current fiber-to-the-premise deployment, increases the entire nation's residential fiber build by more than 40% and more than triples the number of metropolitan areas AT&T has announced plans to serve." Regulators earlier this year killed Comcast's proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairman-wheeler-recommendation-concerning-attdirectv-transaction http://www.wsj.com/articles/fcc-poised-to-approve-at-ts-49-billion-acquisition-of-directv-1437511631 _____________________________________________o Amazon Launches Home Services Business in San Jose

San Jose, Calif. -- Online retail giant Amazon said on Wednesday it has launched its Amazon Home Services in 11 new cities, including San Jose. The service, which initially launched four months ago in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, allows users to hire vetted and licensed professionals in areas such as home improvement, automotive and computer repair. The company currently offers more than 900 professional services, which customers can buy through custom and pre-packaged formats. Projects can include anything from painting a room to home entertainment setup to central air installation. The idea, said General Manager Nish Lathia, is to make "buying a service as easy as buying a product on Amazon."http://www.amazon.com/services http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2069806 _____________________________________________ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit Baltimore - Sept. 30, 2015 - Baltimore

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Leading marketers, technologists and agency professionals from throughout the region come together at this annual event to discuss major marketing, social, digital and advertising trends, along with dozens of case studies, presentations and keynotes. Now in its third year and co-produced by Potomac Tech Wire, this summit is becoming a "must attend" event for the region's marketing community For more information: www.mamsummit.com _____________________________________________> Don't Miss - Bay Area Tech Wire Advertising

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